Things to see in Florence

Tourist offices

The Firenze Card (www.firenzecard.it) is valid for three days and grants admission to 72 of the most important museums in Florence and also includes free public transport. The card is available online, at tourist information offices, and at the ticket offices of several museums.

There are also special tickets available at some museums, which allow the holder a discount on the entrance price of other participating attractions. Special passes for the Palazzo Pitti (including the Galleria Palatina, Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Galleria del Costume, Museo degli Argenti, Museo delle Porcellane and Giardino di Boboli) are valid for three days. The passes are available for purchase at participating venues.

Cappelle Medicee (Medici Chapels)

Built by the powerful Medici family to serve as their mausoleums, entering the Medici Chapels feels like stepping into a large jewellery box. The Chapel of the Princes is decorated with semi-precious stones and dotted with works of art, while Michelangelo designed the New Sacristy.

Brunelleschi's gravity-defying dome dominates the Florence skyline and defines the city. The double-skinned roof that sits atop the city's rose-coloured cathedral was an architectural breakthrough and remains the largest self-supporting dome since the classical era. Despite the lavish pink, white and green marble frontage, the cathedral's cavernous interior is surprisingly free from decoration.

While Florence offers a panoply of art, most people associate the city with just one masterpiece - Michelangelo's David. Crafted when the artist was only 29 years old, the huge statue, carved from a single block of marble in 1502, occupies pride of place in the city's Accademia Gallery.

Built for the wealthy Pitti family in 1440, this sprawling palace now houses six different museums. The best two are the misleadingly named Gallery of Modern Art which houses Florentine art from the 18th and 19th centuries and the Galleria Palatina with Rubens, Titian and Raphael wrapped in heavy gilt frames. Few make it to the Costume Gallery, Silver Museum and Porcelain Museum and visitors at saturation point should head to the wonderful Boboli Gardens, a haven of fountains, grottoes and shady walks.

Home to Florence's gold and silversmiths since 1563, this famous 14th-century bridge is literally lined with gold, and is a prime shopping trap for tourists today. High above the shops is the Corridoio Vasariano, a secret passage that links the Uffizi Gallery to the Pitti Palace but can only be visited by prior appointment.

Some of Italy's most gifted men are buried in this elegant Franciscan church, including Michelangelo (whose body was smuggled out of Rome in a packing case), Machiavelli, Galileo, Rossini and Ghiberti. Dante's tomb lies empty - the forefather of Italian literature died in Ravenna and the city refused to return his corpse.

The Medici art collection, housed in the majestic, 16th-century Uffizi Palace, is one of the most important accumulations of art in the world. It is too vast to tackle on a single visit, but don’t miss Botticelli's mythological masterpieces, The Birth of Venus and Primavera, nor Leonardo Da Vinci's Annunciation if you’re short of time.

The grim façade of the Palazzo del Bargello, formerly the city's jail and torture chamber, is a daunting introduction to Tuscany's most impressive collection of Renaissance sculpture. Masterpieces by Cellini, Donatello and Michelangelo are arranged over three floors and overflow into the Palace's handsome courtyard.

Showcasing a wealth of 20th-century art across 15 exhibition areas, this innovative museum celebrates the creative sparks of the 1900s. Working back from the 1990s, it’s a chronological journey of paintings, sculptures and installations by the likes of Giorgio De Chirico, Giorgio Morandi and Emilio Vedova. The top floor has a fascinating cinematic depiction of Florence.

The zebra-striped façade of the Santa Maria Novella church, completed in 1470, is one of Florence's most dramatic frontages. Its graceful scrolls, gothic arches and classical pediments combine to make a standout building in a city of wonderful architecture. Inside is Masaccio's Holy Trinity (1427), a fresco displaying an outstanding use of perspective.